1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a conveyor track for piece goods, especially for luggage containers.
2. Description of Related Art
A conveyor installation for pallets for parking motor vehicles is known from German patent publication 44 07 163 C1. This conveyor system substantially includes two conveyor belts for transporting pallets which run parallel to one another and at a distance from one another. The conveyor belts are constructed so as to be endlessly revolving and are guided, at the beginning and at the end of the conveyor track, over deflecting wheels or rollers which are rotatable about horizontal axes and driven by an electric motor. The transmission of a driving force between the deflecting wheels and the conveyor belt, which has a flat cross section, is effected by frictional engagement. Each deflecting wheel is supported at the end of two longitudinal supports running parallel in the conveying or transporting direction.
Between the deflecting rollers, as viewed in the transporting direction, the working section or upper length of the conveyor belt is additionally supported by carrying rollers which are also supported by the longitudinal supports. Guide rollers, which are rotatable about vertical axes, and guide rails, which extend laterally adjacent to the conveyor belt in the transporting direction, are provided for lateral guidance of the conveyor belt. Several other known means or configurations for guiding the conveyed goods include arranging guide disks at both sides of the carrying rollers, constructing the carrying rollers spherically, or providing the carrying rollers with a circumferential groove along which a web of complementary construction arranged on the underside of the conveyor belt is guided.
These known conveyor belts must be highly pretensioned in order to prevent possible slippage, as for example, between the driven deflecting wheels and the conveyor belt. Pretensioning of the conveyor belt is achieved by means of tensioning stations provided in different sizes based on the required tensioning length. Thus, it is not possible to standardize the tensioning stations. In addition, these high tensioning forces are absorbed by the supporting construction of the conveyor which therefore must be dimensioned and constructed accordingly. Moreover, the friction-type driving of the belt does not always guarantee synchronous running of the two parallel conveyor belts and thus, the pallets could twist and impair the dependability or reliability of transfer to subsequent conveyors.
European patent application 601 279 A1 discloses a running belt for passengers driven by two V-belts in conjunction or combined with two toothed belts. The running belt comprises step plates arranged successively in the transporting direction and oriented transversely to the transporting direction. The step plates are fastened or attached with their lateral ends on the combined V-belt and toothed belt. The running belt, and thus the V-belt/toothed belt combination which forms the running belt, are endless and revolve around deflecting pulleys or deflecting rollers arranged at the beginning and at the end of the running belt. This V-belt/toothed belt combination for driving the running belt is desirable over the conventional toothed belt drive running belt in that it introduces the principal driving force from the deflecting wheels to the V-belts and ensures that the teeth of the V-belt will synchronize the step plates driven at either end by the V-belt/toothed belt combination. As a result of this construction, the noise which is generated predominately by the teeth of the toothed belt engaging in the toothed disk is minimized. In order to optimize the noise reduction, the circumference of the toothed disks are simultaneously provided with alternating toothless portions toothed regions with the spacing between the tooth flanks on the toothed disk increased so that only one tooth flank of the toothed belt engages with the toothed disk. As for the drive, the toothed belt plays only a secondary role, since its main function is to synchronize the V-belt drive which is subject to slipping.
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a conveyor track for piece goods, in particular for luggage containers, which has a simplified construction.